Unusually moist conditions continue to bedevil north central Ohio. This survey was released on April 5, so our soil is now moister than this. / NOAA

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News Journal

Although rainfall totals appeared to vary quite a bit around Richland County, half to three-quarters of an inch of precipitation appeared to be the norm with the fairly juicy frontal boundary that passed through overnight.

Of course, this is rain we really don’t need. We’re approaching the point in the spring where a lot of us would like to get outside and start moving some earth around, but until and unless we get a good seven-day stretch of dry weather (even just five days would help) that’s going to be hard to accomplish.

This latest frontal boundary was stationary over Ohio as of late Friday morning, but is expected to begin shifting eastward soon. If it does, we should start to see some clearing by late in the day, and if it’s not too late we might see a high temperature of 60 degrees.

The weekend looks fairly close to spectacular, our first full-on spring weekend of this season, with high temperatures expected to climb into the 70s both days. Saturday will be mostly sunny, while clouds will be more in evidence on Sunday. Rain will be a slight possibility to close out the weekend, but the chances for it will only be decent up along the Lake Erie shore.

Rain will once again become likely by Monday, along with the possibility of thunderstorms, although indications are the precipitation will add up to no more than an quarter inch, which is encouraging. After that, the bottom will drop out and winter weather returns.

Our high temperatures are forecast to hold only in the 40s on Tuesday and Wednesday, although they should climb back to normal levels after that. And happily, any mention of snow for that period has been removed from our forecast, although the snowbelt could actually see accumulating snow then.

Finally, some long-range outlooks are hinting at a mix of rain and snow for us on Easter Sunday. One would like to think pushing Easter back as far as we have this spring would eliminate that threat, but I’ll believe it when (or if) I see it.

Below are the weather statistics for Thursday, April 10 at my location 4 miles north-northwest of Fredericktown, Ohio: